After my recent post on school lunches, I received several requests to share our recipe for the vietnamese summer rolls my kids love so much. Michael makes these for the kids at least once a week and it’s always a huge hit — it’s the one day of the week where all three kids come home with completely empty lunch boxes. I finally got Michael to write down his recipe and instructions, which I’ve shared below — along with a tip for keeping the summer rolls from sticking to the lunch box.

Quickly soak rice paper rounds in water, removing excess (we use a shallow round pie dish filled with water). Lay wet rice paper rounds on damp tea towel. Add grated carrot, 2 cucumber sticks, sprouts and about 5 – 6 pieces of marinated tofu in the top half of each rice paper round. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Add fresh mint & coriander. Fold sides of rice paper partially over mound of ingredients and then roll toward yourself, using thumbs to keep escaping ingredients in check (pack will also have instructions for this). Place in lunch box/container which has been rubbed with sesame oil to stop the rolls sticking. Include Vietnamese dressing in separate container for dipping. Our PlanetBox lunch boxes are perfect for this meal.

Comments (5)

[…] managed to find a good rotation of lunches the kids really love. Some of their favourites are: Vietnamese summer rolls (which admittedly take a bit of time and prep in the morning, but the kids LOVE them), pasta salad, […]

Hello, sorry to have to ask but how long generally do you Marinade the tofu for? In a whole fresh block or in pieces. These summer rolls are on next weeks hit list for sure. I’ve definitely hit a road block with lunch ideas.
Thanks in advance x

Courtney in Australia

June 29, 2017

Hi Leanne,
Michael chops the tofu up into little squares and puts it into a bowl with the Tamari sauce just before he starts assembling all the summer rolls, so the tofu does’t have to marinade for long. It absorbs the sauce quickly!
I hope your little ones love them! x

Allison

June 29, 2017

Love this idea. I only ever make them for dinners or picnics as I find the prep a bit time consuming but I know my daughter would LOVE to find them in her lunch.

Thanks for your help. I made the stupid mistake of putting the whole stack of rice paper rounds into the water together which of course resulted in them all sticking together, ha! I managed to salvage 3 of the 10 which we all agreed tasted delicious but looked terrible. I’ll be having another go this weekend. Practice makes perfect on these I think. Thanks again!

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